Welcome to The Spaces in Between, a weekly newsletter on culture, language, and technology written by Stephan Caspar. If you’re new here, then welcome, feel free to subscribe.
Some weeks it feels as if time stops. Ever since we stayed home in March I feel as if I have been sat working at this desk. Doing what I can surround by my family, and other people who pop up on my screen occasionally to bring hope or sympathize with this strange situation.
Some weeks I have had energy enough to work and stay focussed. Other weeks have been tough. On Fridays I catch myself looking back and think about how I spent my time. Perhaps too long spent looking at my phone, or no new sketches, little reading, or venturing out. Other weeks, my desk is cluttered with notes, paints are left out, there’s a book open on the sofa arm and there’s mud on the shoes by the door.
My energy feels tidal. I float along with it.
Here’s a photo was taken on 1st January 2018, probably a few days before I wrote my application for a job in America. It is a beach with an estuary to the River Teifi in Cardigan, West Wales. Here the sky feels big, you can take deep breaths of sea air.
This quote seems to sum up how I’m feeling some weeks.
Some men die at ebb tide; some at low water; some at the full of the flood.
Herman Melville (Moby Dick)
Perhaps not die, but overcome, slightly.
I’m writing this midweek and the snow is beginning to fall outside. I’m tired and need to go to bed. This will be the last newsletter of 2020, although there will be one more for the Global Languages & Cultures Room.
Thanks again for your support and encouragement, it has been lovely writing for you, and thank you for indulging me.
Stephan
Teaching & Learning
This is a post in anticipation of conversations that I hope to have with colleagues in the new year to reconsider grading. I’ve been reading Jesse Stommel’s posts on upgrading, an educator deeply interested in intrinsic and extrinsic motivation who draws on work by Alfie Kohn. I remember, even when I was training as a teacher that Alfie Kohn’s words on assessment helped me understand why it was that students were losing faith in their learning, and how they felt about exams and tests.
We’ve been meeting as a faculty this week to interview candidates for a new role in our department and the conversations have been rich and informative. At the end of each session, I’ve closed my computer feeling inspired and thankful to be working alongside such caring and generous colleagues.
We have all talked about the pressure on students and ways to alleviate this and a few times the conversation has focussed on assessment. The word “rigor” has come up and my immediate reaction is to think negatively of its use, whether by politicians of (depressingly) either wing or academics and administrators who seem suspicious of students’ motivation and persuaded of the rather strange view that achievement can only be judged in purely one-dimensional terms.
I’m fed up with it, grading systems undermine learning. Students have been conditioned and institutionalized, often much more than instructors working with them to think of grades as the most important factor in learning. I can’t hide my frustration and want to explore ways for students to self-assess or meta-evaluate. Assessment is only useful when you can do something with it, for instance, understand where learning has been partial or incomplete, or push on to richer and more complex explorations of the material. Otherwise, why….just why?
I agree with Jesse that “…grading is a thorn in the side of critical pedagogies” and it seemed completely at odds with the conversations around the banking model that I awarded grades for the depth of their analysis or recall around our discussion. I think the most pertinent question that I asked my students was “What does learning look like?” and found so many answers that described attaining and retaining knowledge, and very few that used more playful words like “discover” or “create”.
Life Lessons
As this is the last newsletter of the year, I wanted to do a quick review of the past few issues. It has now been a month or so since the changes and I’m five issues into this.
I have enjoyed writing from a more personal perspective and sharing aspects of our lives here in the states. I sort of do miss the freewheeling content of the Modern Languages Digest and the lists of apps, tools, and links to all other content. I do still want to include some of that in this current newsletter, but I’m not entirely sure that it was always useful or worthwhile sharing. So, this newsletter wants to go after hearts, just as much as minds.
I know that I haven’t made much audio this year, and one of the reasons for choosing substack was that you can publish podcasts. There are a few audio clips dotted through the archive, drawn from feeds on Soundcloud, so you’re welcome to have a listen. Who knows, if I have time I might add a little end of the year gift for you.
Sitting down to write, in snippets and stolen moments has provided space for reflection. It is a privilege to be able to write this and I’m grateful. I wonder if at any other time I would have wanted to do this as much as I have. Occasionally trying to hit the pause button amid this discombobulation and weirdness.
Lost and Found
As I mentioned earlier, I haven’t made much audio this year, but I have kept listening.
This week Adam Buxton interviewed Sir Paul McCartney, and rather than an interview it felt like many of Adam’s other episodes, a friendly chat, overheard. Paul was open and insightful, talking about old tunes, John Lennon, and daytime TV pleasures.
Ira Glass talks through the 25th Anniversary of This American Life, an institution in podcasting and the measuring stick for feature-led public radio journalism.
Going back to teaching and learning for a minute, this newsletter is all of five issues old but neglected to mention Sophie Bailey’s brilliant TheEdTech Podcast and Joe Dale and Noah Geisel’s MFLTwitterati podcast, both important, informative, and entertaining shows that support teaching and leave you inspired, stimulated and loads of ideas to take to the classroom.
I wrote a post in the summer for the EdTech Podcast, which related my experience of living and working in the US during this tumultuous year.
Dotstorming is similar to Padlet and costs a little less if you want security features and unlimited boards. Otherwise, the free version is sufficient and includes voting features for each “sticky note” or box. I’ve used it to start a session, ask a question, gather responses, and discuss what people have put. Give it a go.
Thank you
There are honestly so many snow photos on my Instagram site now, that I won’t add too many more. Just to say that the kids have thoroughly enjoyed building snowmen and sledding down the hill behind our house. I’m really loving evenings, the snow gives off a lovely glow, reflecting all the twinkly lights and decorations on the street. It really is quite pretty, the world looks like it has been dipped in whipped cream.
As I mentioned, there’s no newsletter next week. I need some R&R. I hope that you get to take a break too and have some time to yourself.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch, leave a comment or drop me a line, I love hearing from you, and thank you for all your kind comments and encouragement. Here’s to 2021, and seeing you all again.
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